The Globe and Mail reports, “Negotiators concluded two weeks of climate talks in Bonn on Friday, providing a sobering view of the political roadblocks on the way to Durban, South Africa, where ministers will meet (on November 28 to December 9). …(The Durban climate summit is to) determine what global system will be in place when commitments under the Kyoto Protocol expire at the end of 2012. …The UN’s chief climate negotiator (Christina Figueres) acknowledged Friday that economic and political challenges are competing with the scientific urgency of reducing emissions. …With the world economy still reeling from financial and debt crises, there is a fading hope that countries will accept a pact that would see greenhouse gas emissions peak by 2015 and then begin to drop. And more important, that they will follow through with their own promised emission reductions. …Ms. Figueres did hold out hope that, at Durban, global governments will be able to agree on fundamental questions about the future of the Kyoto Protocol.”
“For its part, Canada has formally ruled out accepting new emission-reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol, adding to a sense of crisis as more than 190 countries attempt to build consensus for a new global climate agreement. …With its explicit refusal to make new commitments, Canada has now joined Russia and Japan as Kyoto signatories who insist the world needs a new treaty that requires binding commitments – not voluntary targets – from countries such as China, India and Brazil. (Associated Press has reported, “Developing nations, pointing to the industrialized world as the main culprit behind global warning, want an international treaty that would legally bind countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.”) …In a presentation during the Bonn conference, Canadian negotiator Michael Keenan said the Harper government has a plan to meet its target (of a 17 percent reduction below 2005 levels by 2020) and will soon be introducing regulations to govern emissions in the oil industry, following similar efforts in the electricity and transportation sectors. However, his presentation failed to provide a breakdown of how the various actions by Ottawa and the provinces will achieve the emission reductions over the next 10 years that are required to meet the target. And delegates questioned whether Canada could meet its goals while allowing the dramatic expansion of the oil sands projects, which represent the fastest growing source of emissions in the country.”
In December 2010, more than sixteen Postmedia news websites reported, “This weekend’s emergence of Canada’s position at the 16th annual meeting of members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Mexico drew criticism from environmental groups, including the Council of Canadians. The strong criticism came as news emerged that Canada, Russia and Japan had stood together in opposing the extension of Kyoto Protocol’s legally binding greenhouse-reduction targets. The Council of Canadians said that while the Harper government has long denounced the Kyoto accord, it now appears to be leading the charge away from legally binding targets.” La Presse reported at that time, “(The Harper government has said that it) would refuse a further period of mandatory reductions of greenhouse gas emissions for the 36 signatories of the protocol (beyond 2012). Environmental groups and citizens including Equiterre and the Council of Canadians, have responded by strongly condemning this decision.” And the Globe and Mail reported, “Federal Environment Minister John Baird (went to Cancun) looking to administer last rites to the Kyoto Protocol, at least in its current form. But the funeral may have to wait for next year’s session in South Africa. For Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the end of Canada’s commitment to Kyoto would achieve a long-standing goal, as he has opposed the accord since its inception in 1997 and distanced his government from it since taking office five years ago. Canada remains the only country to ratify Kyoto and then publicly renounce its 2012 emission targets – a move the Harper government took almost immediately after taking office when then-environment-minister Rona Ambrose told an international gathering there was no chance of lowering emissions to 6 per cent below 1990 levels.”
The Associated Press has reported, “There was formal agreement (in Cancun) that emissions cuts needed to be in line with the science – 25 to 40 percent cuts by 2020 – and the global temperature rise target should be kept below 2 degrees instead of at 2 degrees as the target in the Copenhagen Accord. (But) current pledges under the Copenhagen accord translate into global temperature rises of 3 to 5 degrees C by most analyses. Japan, Canada, the United States and Russia successfully undermined any binding agreement on how to reach those targets by lobbying to abandon the Kyoto Protocol and replacing it with a weak pledge and review system as proposed in the Copenhagen Accord.” The Bolivian government made the argument in Cancun that – given that 300,000 people die annually from climate change-related causes and that this number may increase to a million people a year – an ecocide and genocide is happening.
A team from the Council of Canadians will be present at the COP 17 climate summit in Durban, South Africa.
